For the first few weeks afterward, Woodfill was on cloud nine - brimming with love for her newborn and pride that she'd pushed her body to its limit and experienced the birth the way she'd wanted.

Then she looked at herself in the mirror.

She'd gained 50 pounds during the pregnancy, and the weight didn't seem to be coming off, at least not as fast as she'd hoped. She found herself avoiding having her picture taken, disgusted that she was still in maternity clothes and angry with herself for not getting back her pre-baby body quickly enough.

"I just had such reverence for my body after the birth, and to slide so easily into self-loathing because of the weight really bothered me," said Woodfill, 33. "I had such respect for my body and what it did in labor, and at the same time I'm looking at myself in the mirror just picking myself apart."

Woodfill has plenty of company in her angst over her mommy body. Whether they're a few weeks postpartum or their baby is 18 years old, many women fervently wish to be thinner - so much so they'd be willing to give up years of their life. In a recent poll of 1,000 women by Fitness magazine, 85 percent would agree to an extra toe if they could reach their ideal weight, while 23 percent would spend a week in jail. Half would choose losing 20 pounds over living to be 100, while 42 percent admitted to using a diet drug or supplement to lose weight.

Pregnancy is the one time in a woman's life she gets a pass on being thin, said Dori Winchell, a psychologist who specializes in eating disorders. But as soon as that baby is out, "all the insecurities come flooding back. Women say, 'Oh my god, I'm just a fat cow. I've got to lose weight now.'"

Where does the pressure come from? Blame some of it on celebrity media, which obsessively tracks the pregnancies and startling post-baby weight loss of stars such as Katie Holmes, Heidi Klum, Kate Hudson, Samantha Harris, Angelina Jolie and Denise Richards.

Knowing that the rich and famous have personal chefs, nannies, stylists, trainers and the promise of million-dollar paychecks doesn't diminish the impact of the message: Thin equals beauty and glamour, and if these women can get their body back before the ink has dried on the baby's birth certificate, so should you.

Giving birth is a "profound miracle," Winchell said. "And what do we value? That the person can still be a size zero, the shape of an adolescent boy. It is in direct conflict to what the body just did as far as giving birth."

Partial blame falls on the "super mom" mind-set. Some women, especially those used to professional success before children, think they should be able to get the promotion, bake homemade cookies for the PTA sale, raise gifted and talented children - and do it all in the skinny jeans and tight T-shirts they wore when they were 25.

"It's this weird dichotomy," said Woodfill, a San Diego high school English teacher whose daughters are 4 years old and nearly a year old. "Society tells us to do the job of being a mother, but don't look womanly or motherly. Become a mother, but look as if you were never pregnant."

None of this is to say that it's wrong for women to have the goal of returning to the weight they were before the pregnancy - or, if they were already overweight, to slim down even more. But nutritionists, midwives and OB-GYNs say the key is for women to be realistic - and not compare themselves to the very few women who, either by strict dieting and exercise or unusual genes, seem to magically get back their old figures while other women are still wearing elastic waistbands.

One pound a week is as fast as a postpartum woman should shed weight, and one or two pounds a month is even better, said Dr. Kathleen Motil, an associate professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston who has done studies on postpartum weight loss.

Forget crash dieting. Drastic cuts in calories rob the body of the nutrients needed to produce breast milk. "You don't have to starve yourself to lose weight," Motil said.

Instead, the way to shed the pounds is to make modest cuts in your caloric intake and burn more calories through exercise.

"If you're a healthy person, just get back to healthy behaviors," said Jennifer Hirsch, a certified nurse midwife at University of California San Diego Medical Center. "Generally, the best way to lose weight for anyone is watch portion size, eat less sugar and less fat and exercise."

If diet and exercise are the first two ingredients, the third is time.

"It took nine months to gain the weight; it can take six or eight months or longer to get it off," said Jill Jarret, a UCSD Medical Center registered dietitian.

After the birth of her daughter, Woodfill began walking and trying to watch what she ate, but the scale didn't seem to budge. To step up her efforts, she joined Baby Boot Camp, an exercise class that lets moms power walk or jog and do toning and strengthening exercises while pushing their children in strollers. She got even more vigilant about reading food labels and watching calories.

"I don't mind being curvy. I don't mind hips. I don't need to look like a stick figure or my high school students," she said. "But I didn't want to resign myself to being a 20-pound-overweight mom."

Since she started the exercise class, she lost 35 pounds - all but 15 of what she'd gained - and feels more like her old self again. "It's not just the weight loss," she said. "Getting out there every day, in the fresh air, gives me a sense of accomplishment."

Though determined to lose the rest of the baby weight, Woodfill tries not to dwell on it too much.

"I can't make it such a priority to have a flat belly or look great in a bikini," she said. "That's not my focus in my life anymore. I want to be able to be OK putting on a size 10 jeans, being healthy, having time to play with my kids and feeling good about myself."